To be sure there were plenty of other voices from Ohio and elsewhere applauding “The War on the President.”  Nevertheless, there were signs of a reluctance to join the movement, and some of these in quarters where they had been least expected.  Notably, the Abolitionist leaders were slow to come forward.  Sumner was particularly slow.  He was ready, indeed, to admit that a better candidate than Lincoln could be found, and there was a whisper that the better candidate was himself.  However, he was unconditional that he would not participate in a fight against Lincoln.  If the President could be persuaded to withdraw, that was one thing.  But otherwise—­no Sumner in the conspiracy.(3)

Was it possible that Chandler, Wade, Davis and the rest had jumped too soon?  To rebuild the Vindictive Coalition, the group in which Sumner had a place was essential.  This group was composed of Abolitionists, chiefly New Englanders, and for present purpose their central figure was Andrew, the Governor of Massachusetts.  During the latter half of August, the fate of the Conspiracy hung on the question, Can Andrew and his group be drawn in?

Andrew did not like the President.  He was one of those who never got over their first impression of the strange new man of 1861.  He insisted that Lincoln lacked the essential qualities of a leader.  “To comprehend this objection,” says his frank biographer, “which to us seems so astoundingly wide of the mark, we must realize that whenever the New Englander of that generation uttered the word ‘leader’ his mind’s eye was filled with the image of Daniel Webster . . . his commanding presence, his lofty tone about affairs of state, his sonorous profession of an ideal, his whole ex cathedra attitude.  All those characteristics supplied the aristocratic connotation of the word ‘leader’ as required by a community in which a considerable measure of aristocratic sympathy still lingered.  Andrew and his friends were like the men of old who having known Saul before time, and beholding him prophesying, asked ’Is Saul also among the prophets?’"(4)

But Andrew stood well outside the party cabals that were hatched at Washington.  He and his gave the conspirators a hearing from a reason widely different from any of theirs.  They distrusted the Executive Committee.  The argument that had swept the Committee for the moment off its feet filled the stern New Englanders with scorn.  They were prompt to deny any sympathy with the armistice movement.(5) As Andrew put it, the chief danger of the hour was the influence of the Executive Committee on the President, whom he persisted in considering a weak man; the chief duty of the hour was to “rescue” Lincoln, or in some other way to “check the peace movement of the Republican managers."(6) if it were fairly certain that this could be effected only by putting the conspiracy through, Andrew would come in.  But could he be clear in his own mind that this was the thing to do?  While he hesitated,